A healthcare tech tycoon who has handed £5 million in donations to the Conservative Party is currently raking in £800,000 a week in NHS contracts, an investigation by the Good Law Project has revealed.
The Department of Health and Social Care has paid a firm owned by Frank Hester an eye-watering £137 million in hidden payments, seemingly for digitising NHS records.
Payments to Hester’s Phoenix Partnership – which are running at around £800,000 a week – continue to flow, according to the law charity, helping Hestor rake in astronomical sums in dividends.
The accounts of the holding company, which is 100 per cent owned by Hester, reveal that he was paid £10 million in dividends last year, and his operating company has paid dividends of £52 million in the last four years.
In December last year, Frank Hester wrote: “We are here for our NHS. We are here to help, not drive profits for shareholders or to grease revolving doors.”
Commenting on the matter, Good Law Project Executive Director, Jo Maugham, said: “We’ve been shining a light on the donors’ money-go-round since the pandemic.
“But the huge size of Hester’s donation makes this stand out for its sheer ugliness.”
Frank Hester was approached for a comment.
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